Intel announces Optane SSD for Consumers

Intel on Tuesday announced the first consumer Optane SSD at CES. Based on the Optane memory, the Intel Optane SSD 800p will be the first storage device based on Intel’s Optane technology.

The SSD named as the 800P will be be available to consumers in two capacity sizes. A 58GB version and a 118GB version. Both the drives will be bootable and and uses a PCIe 3.0 x2 interface. Unlike the first Optane Memory product which was a 16GB or 32GB drive for use as a cache along with a mechanical drive, the new 800P will feature low-power states to improve efficiency and will be optimized for desktop performance.

The new 800P will feature low-power states to improve efficiency. The two products however use the same controller. The Optane SSD 800p will be optimized for desktop computers. Intel is also rumored to announce a new M10 series Optane Memory device with the L1.2 power state for notebooks.

The meager capacities will probably hush away the less enthusiastic users, as they make these drives less than feasible for storing bulk data. The Optane SSDs will mainly be used for storing the operating system and critical apps, while secondary HDDs will have to be used for personal data.

The performance figures and the prices weren’t revealed, but the drives should arrive in an M.2 form factor and should hit retail shelves by March. Intel says that the drive uses two PCIe lanes instead of four like most high performance SSDs to boost latency. Expect average sequential read speeds but unbelievably good latency and low queue depth performance.